Semaglutide, which has been misused in recent months by non-diabetic people to lose weight, could be promising for smoking cessation in smokers with chronic hyperglycemia.
- Semaglutide use is associated with a lower risk of medical care related to tobacco use disorder in smokers with type 2 diabetes.
- After taking Ozempic, patients were less likely to have a doctor’s visit, medication prescription, or smoking cessation advice.
- However, further research is needed to confirm the potential of semaglutide for smoking cessation.
There is growing evidence that the use of semaglutide, better known as Ozempic, may lead to a decrease in substance use. Recently, researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (USA) revealed that this drug, a GLP-1 receptor agonist prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes, could help patients quit smoking. To reach this conclusion, they conducted a study, the results of which were published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
Ozempic Reduced Smoking-Related Medical Visits in Diabetic Patients
For the research, the team recruited 222,942 people with type 2 diabetes and tobacco use disorder. Participants were assigned to take semaglutide and seven other diabetes medications (insulins, metformin, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors, sulfonylureas, thiazolidinediones, and other GLP-1RAs). Health care measures related to tobacco use disorder (medical consultation, medication prescriptions, and advice to quit smoking) during a 12-month follow-up were examined.
According to the results, semaglutide was associated with a lower risk of medical consultations for the diagnosis of tobacco use disorder compared with other antidiabetic drugs. It was also associated with a reduction in medication prescriptions and advice to stop smoking. “Similar results were observed in patients with and without a diagnosis of obesity. For most group comparisons, differences occurred within 30 days of starting the prescription,” can be read in the works.
Smoking: study limitations prevent definitive conclusions from being drawn
Although the results are consistent with the hypothesis that semaglutide may be beneficial for smoking cessation, the authors state that study limitations (missing data on current smoking behavior, body mass index, and treatment adherence) preclude definitive conclusions and should not be interpreted as justifying clinicians’ use of semaglutide off-label for smoking cessation.
